The headline question " Is the new Liverpool Royal hospital failing its patients? " is rather insulting to all of the staff who have been working so very hard in the new hospital since it opened, trying to give the patients all the care they need while the entire health care system is currently under unprecedented pressure. As from some of your readers' comments, the blame goes all the way to the top of government resting squarely on the shoulders of successive ministers overseeing the health system including those who decided to use the PFI scheme for the construction of the hospital, ignoring warnings coming from all quarters and eventually cost the taxpayers £250millions more for the building after the contractor went burst, not counting the £500,000 a month in bills while it stood empty for 5 years when most of its inside was getting rebuilt. Before, during and after the pandemic, the government have been privatising pieces of the health service by stealth, cutting funding on staff recruitment and maintenance. Their twisted logic of hiring agency staff to fill in emergencies they thought would not occur too often have now backfired spectacularly with the entire health service facing collapse.
So, let it be clear, if the Liverpool Royal was failing patients, it is not the fault of any of those working in it. We know who and where the real guilty ones are.
The government has lied repeatedly about nonexistent new hospitals. On its watch 20,000 beds have been closed, 130,000 staff places left vacant, and 500 people have been dying every week because of gaps in health provision. Money continues to pour into the pockets of private shareholders.
The destruction of the NHS is deliberate. The English national service has been replaced by 42 local so-called integrated care systems. Modelled on (and by) the American corporate accountable care systems, these must deny care and drive down staff pay and conditions to guarantee profit for the corporations in control
One new hospital has appeared in recent years, years late because of the criminally costly PFI scheme and the scandalous performance of contractor Carillion.
And when it does open?
“Doctors ‘embarrassed and ashamed’ by care at new hospital.”
This is not neglect or efficiency. It is plain and simple social murder. 350,000 excess deaths since 2010 because of austerity, added to the tens of thousands of Covid deaths caused by corruption and incompetence and the desperate drive to privatise every element of our common weal.
The answer? Join a local campaign group and get out on ambulance and nurses’ picket lines.
Surprise Surprise (part 97). BBC reporter Gill Dummigan covered the transfer of patients from the old RLUH to the new one. While praising the new hospital she pointed out the new RLUH had FEWER beds. It would not require Mystic Meg then to predict the chaos that has resulted The issue of hospital beds is handled with criminal complacency. These managers state that Liverpool's population is declining as justification for the cuts in hospital beds, forgetting that only HEALTHY people move away, the sick remain.People won't need beds everyone will have Zoom and doctors will diagnose by video Of course if a tired doctor has 100 screens to tend to, and someone's wi fi goes down they might:'just as well being in a hospital corridor or in a car park ambulance
Then there is excellent community care Over stretched , inexperienced minimum wage care workers, poor quality care homes (which often suddenly close down leading to rush transfers of frail and sick people and inability to discharge patients from hospital These people don't have families with money to pay privately .A healthy diet of nutrition food isn't going to help someone who has been knocked down by a car or stabbed in a pub fight. Care in the community is a starry eyed fantasy of out of touch NHS management. There is often no care, no family and no community.
Bit misleading about Whiston hospital. The last couple of times I've had cause to visit the A&E there, the corridors have been full. Prior to that, pre-covid, the hospital was running a system that pushed patients (walking wounded) into waiting rooms further inside the hospital until a decision had been made about treatment/admission/discharge. This kind of hid how busy the A&E was.
The Royal may need to build a new A&E when the land is cleared.
Or reopen Broadgreen which closed its A&E 30 years ago. We need MORE beds not less Scrap the obscene Trident missile and tell Mr Zelensky to fight his own war You may say I'm a dreamer. ...
So Mersey Care NHS Trust have built an upgraded, shiny new hospital in a city with increased healthcare demands that has fewer beds than the one it is replacing. Great planning ?.
Knowing the increase in demand especially during winter couldn't they have made a contingency plan to keep open some wards in the old hospital temporarily.
The headline question " Is the new Liverpool Royal hospital failing its patients? " is rather insulting to all of the staff who have been working so very hard in the new hospital since it opened, trying to give the patients all the care they need while the entire health care system is currently under unprecedented pressure. As from some of your readers' comments, the blame goes all the way to the top of government resting squarely on the shoulders of successive ministers overseeing the health system including those who decided to use the PFI scheme for the construction of the hospital, ignoring warnings coming from all quarters and eventually cost the taxpayers £250millions more for the building after the contractor went burst, not counting the £500,000 a month in bills while it stood empty for 5 years when most of its inside was getting rebuilt. Before, during and after the pandemic, the government have been privatising pieces of the health service by stealth, cutting funding on staff recruitment and maintenance. Their twisted logic of hiring agency staff to fill in emergencies they thought would not occur too often have now backfired spectacularly with the entire health service facing collapse.
So, let it be clear, if the Liverpool Royal was failing patients, it is not the fault of any of those working in it. We know who and where the real guilty ones are.
The government has lied repeatedly about nonexistent new hospitals. On its watch 20,000 beds have been closed, 130,000 staff places left vacant, and 500 people have been dying every week because of gaps in health provision. Money continues to pour into the pockets of private shareholders.
The destruction of the NHS is deliberate. The English national service has been replaced by 42 local so-called integrated care systems. Modelled on (and by) the American corporate accountable care systems, these must deny care and drive down staff pay and conditions to guarantee profit for the corporations in control
One new hospital has appeared in recent years, years late because of the criminally costly PFI scheme and the scandalous performance of contractor Carillion.
And when it does open?
“Doctors ‘embarrassed and ashamed’ by care at new hospital.”
This is not neglect or efficiency. It is plain and simple social murder. 350,000 excess deaths since 2010 because of austerity, added to the tens of thousands of Covid deaths caused by corruption and incompetence and the desperate drive to privatise every element of our common weal.
The answer? Join a local campaign group and get out on ambulance and nurses’ picket lines.
Surprise Surprise (part 97). BBC reporter Gill Dummigan covered the transfer of patients from the old RLUH to the new one. While praising the new hospital she pointed out the new RLUH had FEWER beds. It would not require Mystic Meg then to predict the chaos that has resulted The issue of hospital beds is handled with criminal complacency. These managers state that Liverpool's population is declining as justification for the cuts in hospital beds, forgetting that only HEALTHY people move away, the sick remain.People won't need beds everyone will have Zoom and doctors will diagnose by video Of course if a tired doctor has 100 screens to tend to, and someone's wi fi goes down they might:'just as well being in a hospital corridor or in a car park ambulance
Then there is excellent community care Over stretched , inexperienced minimum wage care workers, poor quality care homes (which often suddenly close down leading to rush transfers of frail and sick people and inability to discharge patients from hospital These people don't have families with money to pay privately .A healthy diet of nutrition food isn't going to help someone who has been knocked down by a car or stabbed in a pub fight. Care in the community is a starry eyed fantasy of out of touch NHS management. There is often no care, no family and no community.
P S Regarding Whiston Hospital where is the local MP George "Trident" Howarth? I believe he may be sighted again in 2024 or thereabouts
Bit misleading about Whiston hospital. The last couple of times I've had cause to visit the A&E there, the corridors have been full. Prior to that, pre-covid, the hospital was running a system that pushed patients (walking wounded) into waiting rooms further inside the hospital until a decision had been made about treatment/admission/discharge. This kind of hid how busy the A&E was.
The Royal may need to build a new A&E when the land is cleared.
Or reopen Broadgreen which closed its A&E 30 years ago. We need MORE beds not less Scrap the obscene Trident missile and tell Mr Zelensky to fight his own war You may say I'm a dreamer. ...
So Mersey Care NHS Trust have built an upgraded, shiny new hospital in a city with increased healthcare demands that has fewer beds than the one it is replacing. Great planning ?.
Knowing the increase in demand especially during winter couldn't they have made a contingency plan to keep open some wards in the old hospital temporarily.